Boys and Girls In America
by theUglySpirit
Summary: Sequel to "Girl In Trouble". Evie, Steve, and Sodapop continue to look for Sandy. T for language, lots and lots of language.
1. Chapter 1

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

A/N: This is a continuation of "Girl In Trouble". I wanted to play with the character of Ethan a little more, and I've read a couple of pieces by others recently that rekindled my love of Two-Bit, too. This story starts up where "Girl" left off.

**Boys and Girls In America**

There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right

Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together

-The Hold Steady, "Stuck Between Stations"

One-

"Hey, you promised me, Evie-Girl," Doreen Mathews is grinning at her. "You said next time Two-Bit came in, you'd wait on him. Besides, I got to cut out early. Darla has a school thing."

Evie Bartlett looks past Doreen at the booth that holds Two-Bit, Steve, and Sodapop. Dear as they are to her, they don't tip and Two-Bit has a way of annoying the other customers so that they don't tip either. "Damnit," Evie says.

Doreen sticks her pencil behind her ear and disappears into the kitchen, victorious. Evie rounds the counter and steps up to the boy's booth.

"What can I do for you gentlemen this evening?"

"You know what I want," Steve says without looking up from the menu.

"We ain't serving that," she replies.

"Damn, I was hoping for some of that, too," Two-Bit says. Evie takes his menu and smacks him over the head with it.

"Sodapop?"

"Yeah, I'll have one of those," Two-Bit giggles.

Soda flips him the bird. "I would like a hamburger with no onions or pickles and a side of fries, please. And may I say you are looking lovely this evening, Miss Bartlett?"

"You may, but you're going to have to say it to the fry cook if you want to get your food any faster. Steve?"

Steve sighs and closes the menu. "Jeez, I was hungry, but now I just feel empty inside." He winks at her. "I'll have a barbeque. Thanks, baby."

Evie turns back to Two-Bit. She tries cocking her eyebrow at him, but she can't quite pull it off. He does it back, perfectly, and requests a chocolate milkshake and a handful of straws.

"One chocolate milkshake. ONE straw," Evie says. "You ain't going to blow wrappers all over this diner. You want 20 straws, you can order 20 milkshakes."

"Then I would like 20 chocolate milkshakes, please."

"You know, your mama is still back here. You want me to call her to take your order?"

Two-Bit peers around Evie, grinning but wary. "Is she? Shit, I thought she left for Darla's little play. Fine, just one milkshake and one straw. Please."

Evie retreats to the kitchen and clips the ticket for the cook. Doreen is hanging up her apron and almost out the backdoor. "How's my boy tonight?" She asks.

"At the top of his game," Evie rolls her eyes.

"Then may God have mercy on your soul. I'll see you tomorrow," Doreen gives Evie a wink and is gone.

When she comes back out into the seating area and sees him sitting in the corner booth, Evie nearly chokes on her gum. Of all the nights he could have chosen to show himself, Ethan Irwin has chosen this one. He looks tired and sweaty and covered in dust. He has been working all day (now Evie remembers hearing something about a horse sale at the rodeo arena), and he is not going to give up that menu for anything, she is sure.

When she reaches his table, he says without looking up, "howdy."

"Really? You actually say that?"

"Everyone says that. Any news from the outside?"

Evie shakes her head. She hasn't heard from Sandy, and if he's asking, she guesses Ethan hasn't either. "You?"

"Whole lot of nothing," He hands her the menu. "What do you recommend?"

"You getting the hell out of here." She cocks her head towards the other table. "You see them three over there? My boyfriend, Sandy's boyfriend, and the third one's just batshit crazy."

He leans back and stretches his legs beneath the table. "What? You aren't going to introduce me?"

Evie glares at him. "No, I'm not."

"Fine, I didn't want to meet them anyway," he grins at her and winks. Evie's stomach twists into a knot. She taps her foot. "I'm going to eat dinner, Evie. I promise I'll behave myself."

He orders a hamburger, same as Sodapop's, and a slice of pie. Evie walks back towards the kitchen, unable to escape the look Steve is giving her. "What?" she snaps.

"Nothing," he replies, and her stomach twists tighter. She flees towards the backdoor to have a cigarette. The door doesn't close behind her when she steps into the alley. Steve is standing in the doorway.

"You gonna spit it out or do you want me to guess?" He asks.

"Give me a light, and then tell me what hell you're talking about."

Steve pulls a book of matches out of his shirt pocket and strikes one against the cinderblock wall of the diner. He cups his hand around Evie's cigarette as she inhales. "I ain't never seen him around here before, which means he ain't one of us. That shirt and those boots got 'rodeo' written all over them, and he seems to know you. I couldn't help but notice that."

"I told him to leave," Evie says.

"Well, he don't listen very well. That the guy? Sandy's guy?"

She nods. "What are you going to do?"

"Ain't decided yet. If he'd just stayed away, I'da left it alone. What do you think I should do?"

Evie knows he's only asking so that he can argue with her. Still, she tries to reason with him. "Steve, just like you said he ain't from around here. He doesn't know all of your little rules. He doesn't know about turf."

"I'll say."

"Girls ain't turf, Steve."

"Don't turn this into some girls-versus-boys issue. He fucked Soda over, plain and simple."

"Maybe if Soda wasn't looking at Sandy like some kind of turf he had to lord over…"

Steve raises his eyebrows in annoyance. "You know Soda don't think like that. Come on, Evie, how would you feel if you was him?"

"I wouldn't be feeling anything as long as no one did anything stupid like point the guy out to me."

Steve takes her cigarette from her, takes a drag from it, and hands it back. "All right, how about this? I don't like the way he looks at you."

"Oh, for Christ's sake. Then why don't you just quit your job and set up camp in that booth for all time? There's guys in and out of here all night long who look at me like I oughta be on the menu."

"I just think the guy's already pushing his luck is all. I'm thinking we ought to push back." He opens the door and gestures for her to go back inside. "Shall we?"

Evie crushes her cigarette butt into the concrete and steps back into the kitchen. Steve follows her, flips off the fry cook who is glaring at him for trespassing on fry cook turf, and then strolls back out into the seating area. Evie ducks behind the counter and begins to fill cups with ice. The bell over the front door rings and she looks up to see Tim Shepard come in. This is just not her night, and it's shaping up to not be Ethan's either. She shoots him a wide-eyed "leave now" look, but Ethan shrugs and shakes his head back, pretending not to understand.

She turns to face Tim, who is leaning across the counter, rummaging for something. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah," he looks up at her and almost smiles. "I need a pen."

"Got a happy little song in your head that you need to write down?"

"I got to draw a guy a map," he says and takes a placemat, presumably for that purpose. Evie hands him her pencil. "Thanks, Evie. I'll be right back. Can I get an Orange soda?"

Evie digs an Orange soda out of the cooler. Sodapop's order comes up, but she decides to give it to Ethan instead in hopes that he will finish before the others and leave.

"You see that guy who just came in and left again?" She asks as she puts the hamburger and pie down. She doesn't wait for answer. "Eat and leave, Ethan. He's coming back and you do not want to mess with him."

As promised, Tim returns and takes a seat at the counter. He nods to Steve, Soda, and Two-Bit but makes no move to join them. His head is obviously somewhere else. On another day, Evie might give a damn where. Tim is like a walking, barely-talking spy thriller. No one ever seems to quite know what he's up to, but he always appears to be busy. Now, he's drawing maps. Evie could spend hours inventing stories in her head about why and who Tim would be drawing a map for except that Ethan is draining her creative ambitions right out of her.

Fortunately, he's hungry as hell and takes only minutes to inhale his food. She takes Steve, Soda, and Two-Bit theirs, and by the time she's back at the counter, Ethan is standing there next to Tim. He nods politely to Tim who scowls in return. Ethan shrugs and says, "I guess I'll take my check, then," to Evie.

He pays with a five and tells her to keep it, a three dollar tip on a two dollar order. He tells her to take it easy, nods again to Tim (and gets no reaction at all this time), and heads out the door. It crosses Evie's mind that she might have enjoyed watching him go, that he is a joy to look upon from behind, if Two-Bit, Steve, and Sodapop hadn't also vacated their table and started towards the door.

"Steve…" she says.

He turns back, but not to speak to her. "Shepard," he says, "Keep Evie company for a few minutes, will ya?"

"You son of a bitch, Steve!" Evie shouts and Tim mutters, "Sure, Evie's always good company."

Evie fidgets from her captivity behind the counter, squinting to see them in the dimly lit parking lot. They have backed Ethan up against his truck. Ethan has turned to face them, and he's running his mouth. Evie appeals to Tim:

"Shepard, I got to go out there."

"Really? You just got to?"

Evie growls. "God, I hate you. That guy- he didn't do anything. He's not even from here. He's just some dumb cowboy from Inola."

Tim raises an eyebrow at her. "Well now, Randle and Mathews are another matter, but I never known Curtis to pick a fight without a good reason. What's the reason?"

"Just let me…"

"What's the reason?"

"Shepard, I'm going to call the cops if you don't let me out there. They'll all get thrown in. You probably will, too. Got any stray warrants?"

Tim smiles, genuinely, for the first time. It's a sly smile, but not cold or intimidating. He is enjoying Evie's company after all. "Come on, Evie, you wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

"In a heartbeat. Please, Tim…"

Tim takes an unnecessarily long drink of his Orange soda, sets the bottle down, and says, "Well, since you said 'please'. But stay behind me, will ya?"

Evie says, "thanks, Shepard," and immediately disregards his directive to stay back. She is out the door like a shot and shouting at Steve. Tim follows, soda in hand, his curiosity having gotten the best of him.


	2. Chapter 2

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders, still.

**Boys and Girls In America**

Two-

"Whatever it is, I gave at the office," he says. A wiser man might be shutting his trap and sizing them up, but Ethan figures that doesn't really matter if the odds are already tipped three to one in their favor.

"I hear you're the one who knocked up Sandy," the one standing in the middle says. He's awfully pretty for a boy. The line "I'd hate to have to fuck up that pretty face of yours" flits through Ethan's head, but he figures the kid has probably heard it, and from the looks of things no one has succeeded in fucking him up yet.

Instead, Ethan says, "I've heard that too."

"You know, Sandy is my girlfriend."

As much as that aches for a smart come-back, Ethan restrains himself again. "How nice for the two of you."

"Well, it ain't so nice anymore. Not since you fucked it all up."

"I seem to remember there being two of us fucking it up," Ethan is losing patience. "Why aren't you cornering her in a parking lot somewhere?"

Silence.

"Oh, y'all are assuming that I coerced her or forced her or something? I hate to disappoint you, little man, but it was very much a mutual endeavor."

Ethan, of course, has no way of knowing that "little man" what that handsome little fuck's big brother calls him. When he sees the spark in the boy's eyes, he has no idea this is what set it off.

"Listen, you son of a-" Never sees it coming. The glint in his eyes tells Ethan that he is going to strike, and so Ethan swings first, nailing the boy with a blow to the chin that sends him sliding across the parking lot on his ass. The red-head and Evie's boyfriend don't even turn their heads to watch him go by. They both fly at Ethan, each grabbing an arm and pinning him against the side of the truck.

"Got anything else smart you'd like to say?" Evie's boyfriend snarls.

"Son, I could go on all night," Ethan says, because what else can he say? They're going to beat the shit out of him. Hell, they're probably going to stab him and leave him for dead in the bed of his truck. Ethan hopes that someone back at the sale barn will feed his horse in the morning when they notice he hasn't returned. Winters will. He's cared for Rory Winters' bay enough times when Rory went on benders. Rory will just assume Ethan is drunk somewhere, and he'll feed Ethan's horse…

"Stop it! Steve, Two-bit, stop!" Her voice jars him back to the parking lot. For a moment he finds himself thinking, _Two-Bit? What the hell kind of a name is that? I guess I do know a guy named Boogie, but…_Evie. Goddamned, feisty little Evie is standing there, shouting at her boyfriend, backed up to his handsome friend, pushing against him with all her might. She knows him well enough, obviously, to know he isn't going to push her back no matter how badly he wants at Ethan.

"Evie, take a walk," Steve says.

"You can take a walk straight to hell, Steve Randle. Don't you tell me what to do. Soda, back off and quit bleeding on me! Two-Bit…"

The red-head lets go of Ethan's arm. The only one prepared to tangle with her, it seems, is her old man. With his other arm free of Two-Bit, Ethan shakes Steve off. Steve ignores the shove and takes a step towards Evie.

"Evie, come on," he starts to lead her away and then catches sight of the one from the counter now leaning against a black Packard several parking spaces over. "Goddamnit, Shepard, I asked you to do one simple thing. Do you just like listening to girls scream or what?"

Ethan looks Shepard over. To him, yeah, this guy looks like someone who might like to make girls scream. If this guy ever tripped and stumbled in his life, it was off of the screen and out of his role as one of Brando's Black Rebels. Ethan wouldn't say his eyes are quite dead, but they could definitely use with a little warming up. If any of them, he suspects, this Shepard person is going to be the one to do him in.

"She seemed to think she had something to add to the conversation," the Shepard says, sounding bored.

Steve turns to Evie, "Like what?"

Evie shifts uncomfortably. She thinks for a moment or two, and then turns away to Steve and towards Soda. "Sandy's grandma wrote me. Sandy took off. No one knows where she is."

"So?" Two-Bit says before Soda has time to consider it. "What does that have to do with us and this fucker? He still did what he did to Sandy."

"With," Ethan grumbles. "With Sandy. Get that through your thick, fucking heads."

Steve's upper lip curls, but Soda has lost interest in Ethan. He says to Evie, "What do you mean? When did this happen?"

"About a week ago. Her grandma sent me a letter when I…when I tried to get in touch with Sandy. It was Sandy's grandma who was sending the letters back, Sodapop."

"And you ain't heard from Sandy?"

Evie shakes her head. "That's why he's here. Ethan and I were going to let each other know if we heard anything."

Soda turns to Ethan, who regards him coolly. "What about you?"

"Nada," Ethan says. "We about done here?"

At the same time, Soda says, "yeah, we're done" and Steve snaps, "oh, you and I are far from done, buddy."

Soda punches Steve in the shoulder half-heartedly. "Let it go, Stevie. Let's just go back inside."

"You can let it go if you want. I think me and this asshole still got plenty to talk about. Two-Bit, Tim-"

Two-Bit steps back towards Ethan, his hand on his back pocket. Ethan rolls his eyes and smiles a little. "Evie, go back inside. We'll talk about this later."

"The hell you will," Steve says, but Evie steps between him and Ethan once again. "Can't you listen to sense when you hear it? Soda said let it go, Steve."

Tim peels himself off of the door of the Packard and says, "how about I take care of this guy? Y'all go figure out what you want to do about Sandy."

He seems to have some magical power over the other three boys because they all back off in agreement. Steve hooks Evie's arm and they all start back towards the door of the diner. Evie strains to look back. Her eyes are wide and darting between Ethan and Tim.

Once they are alone, Ethan turns to Tim and says, "don't you have school tomorrow, son?"

"Just get in the fucking car."

But Tim's hypnotic powers fall flat with Ethan. Whatever this kid might be packing under that biker jacket, to Ethan he's still just a kid. "Buddy, I got shit to do in the morning. If you're looking to find some secluded spot to have it out, fine, but I'm driving."

Tim doesn't move. He frowns up at Ethan in unblinking disbelief. Ethan waves a hand in front of Tim's face. "You in there? You want to fight that bad? Then get in the fucking truck."

Against his better judgment, Ethan turns his back on Tim and walks back towards his truck. By the time he reaches the driver's side door and has slid in behind the wheel, Tim is already in on the passenger side.


	3. Chapter 3

SE Hinton owns Tim Shepard and The Outsiders.

**Boys and Girls In America**

Three-

"So, what's the plan here, buddy?" Ethan says as he directs the truck out into traffic. "I've had about enough with the Jets and the Sharks bullshit for one night."

He needs a drink. Ethan leans forward and begins to fish around under the seat for a stray can of beer. He finds it funny that Tim makes no move to stop him. He could be looking for anything under there- a gun, a tire iron- but Tim seems to have ruled out those possibilities. Either he has no fear of them or he has decided he trusts Ethan. Ethan isn't sure which.

He finds an unopened can, but offers it to Tim first. To his relief, Tim waves it away. Instead, he rolls down his window, lights a cigarette, and exhales into the night. He smirks maybe just a little bit. Ethan is only able to watch him from the corner of his eye. They have driven on The Loop, Tulsa's infamous cruising strip, and it is packed with cars packed with teenagers thinking about everything but their driving. Sucked into the jerking tide of traffic, Ethan feels like a steer packed into a chute.

Tim has smoked down about half of his cigarette and Ethan is contemplating the odds of there being a second beer rolling around beneath him before Tim finally speaks. "No plan," he says. "Evie was going to flip out if Steve and you got into it."

"So, we're not driving around looking for a place to kill me?"

Tim shrugs. "Can if you want. I don't really give a damn. Not about you, not about Sandy."

Ethan smiles. "But you got a little something burning for Evie, don't you? And you don't like seeing her get all bent out of shape."

"Evie's a nice girl."

Ethan can't help but laugh out loud. "Man, you are just some kind of poet or something, aren't you? Yeah, Evie's a nice girl. If I was you, I'd be more worried about what's going on between her and that boyfriend of hers back at the diner."

"Steve won't fuck with Evie," Tim says. "He knows better."

"Really? Who took him to school for that? You?"

"He just ain't that kind of guy," There is something more to that story. Ethan can see it in the way Tim won't turn his head even slightly to make eye contact.

"So, you approve then," Ethan says. "You wish things were different, but you guess Steve's all right for her."

"You know, you don't look like any relationship counselor I've ever seen," Tim lights another cigarette.

"You see a lot of those, do you?"

"They always come to see you in the cooler. When you're a juvenile anyway. If you keep coming back when you're an adult, they figure they're wasting their breath."

"Can't say I've ever been," Ethan replies and then feels sort of bad about it. This guy who worked so hard to keep Ethan from getting his ass beat has spent too much of his time locked away. Ethan changes the subject, "So, what are you going to do about it?"

"About what?"

Ethan makes a list, "About Evie, about Sandy disappearing into thin air, about you being in my truck…"

Tim tosses his cigarette out the window. It bounces off of the roof of a passing car and breaks apart in a burst of sparks. "Nothing, nothing, and I'll get out here at the light."

Ethan says nothing, but signals to get into the right lane.

"Mind if I ask what you're going to do?"

Ethan grins. "I'm going to let you out at the light."

"Or we could drive down just past that trailer court there and I could beat you into the ground after all."

"Easy, cowboy," Ethan says. "I'm thinking on it. I hadn't planned to do anything else about Sandy. If she doesn't want me around, I'm not going to go on some big old quest to look for her."

"What about Evie, then?"

Ethan pops the clutch and takes the truck out of gear. He lets it coast to the curb. "Same as you. Ain't going to do a damned thing. You said it yourself. She's a nice girl. I'm pretty confident I blew my shot with her when I knocked up her best girlfriend."

Tim smirks again. He opens his door, but doesn't get out the truck immediately. "But if you had a shot, you'd take it, right?"

"Same as you," Ethan replies. He is answered by the slamming of the passenger door. He squints towards the sidewalk, but Tim has already disappeared into the night. Ethan sits for a minute or two. He is positive that Tim is still watching him from somewhere, but even so he cranes his neck waiting for a break in the lumbering line of cars. When it comes, he turns the truck around and heads back towards the diner.

* * *

_Stupid fucking cowboy_, Tim thinks. Once Ethan's truck is out of sight, he lights another cigarette, and the glow from the match gives away his position in the alley. Tim has rarely been out of the city, and he imagines country people to be like the ones on "Andy of Mayberry": clean cut, not very smart and always in one another's business. He needn't have waited so long before he turned the truck around; Tim didn't need to stay and watch to know he was going to do it.

He likes this guy, and yet he doesn't like him. Or he finds him likable, but he doesn't like the complication of him hanging around. Tim has never even entertained the thought of taking a shot at Evie Bartlett. He has known her for years, and has come to enjoy just watching her from afar. That she ended up dating Steve Randle isn't the end of the world for him. Steve isn't going to break her heart.

Ethan, though, is someone Tim is going to have to watch. He didn't fool Tim when he turned back to the diner, but Tim is having trouble guessing what his intentions are when he gets there. He knows what Soda and Evie are thinking. He knows Steve will be against it, and he knows Two-Bit will be down for joining whichever side prevails. Ethan is the wild card; Tim knows only that they are far from being rid of him.


	4. Chapter 4

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders

**Boys and Girls In America**

Four-

The diner is closed when Ethan returns, but the door is unlocked and the four of them are sitting in a booth underneath a still-lit table. Evie and Sodapop are both pouting from opposite sides of the booth, their arms folded across their chests. Two-Bit is busy constructing a Leaning Tower of Salt and Pepper Shakers on the table in front of him. Steve, it appears, is doing all the talking.

They all jump when Ethan walks through the door. He thinks to himself, _I'll have to let the guy know she asked about him_, when Evie jumps up and says, "What did you do with Tim?"

"I gave him a little talking to," Ethan stretches it just a bit. "And that's exactly what I'm here to do with you four. I not a fuckin' teenie-bopper-" He looks straight at Sodapop when he says it. "I'm an adult, and I don't have any intention of joining in your little reindeer games. I suspect y'all have been sitting here arguing about how you're going to find Sandy, am I right?"

They all stare at him in silence.

"Am I right?"

Soda looks down at the table. Evie nods.

"Well, that's a stupid idea. Whatever idea it was you all settled on, it's a fucking stupid one, I promise you. She's somewhere between here and Florida. Any of you ever been to Florida?"

This time, they all shake their heads in unison. Ethan continues to rant, "Me neither, but I've been to Tennessee, and that's about half-way there. And it's still a long goddamned way. Is she driving? On a bus? On foot? Is she even headed back here? None of you knows a goddamned thing. Remind me never to go camping with any of you little boy scouts."

Evie raises an eyebrow when he singles out the boy scouts. Ethan shakes his head. "Hell no. I ain't going anywhere with you either. Thanks to you I just about got my ass whipped by the boy scouts tonight."

"Thanks to me?"

"Yeah, you. I don't recall so much as waving to you when I came in here. I sure as hell didn't send up a flare. All's I can figure is you had another moment of conscience and just had to tell your darling boyfriend here who I was."

Evie glares at him. Again, Ethan can't help thinking of Tim Shepard and what has him so smitten. Making her angry is like teasing a badger. Eventually, she's going to smack the shit out of him, but she's going to lure him down into her den with those dizzying brown eyes before she does it. "So, you just drove all the way back here to tell us how stupid we are?" She asks.

"No, I told you- I want to hear your little plan."

"Listen, asshole," Steve snaps. "There ain't any part in our little plan for you…"

"So, there is a plan." Ethan shakes his head. All this time, he has been standing over them, kicking angrily at the floor, as if he might charge their table. Now, he turns and pulls over a chair. He turns it backwards and sits down, straddling it. Two-Bit's tower trembles slightly. Ethan extends a hand and steadies it. Two-Bit cocks an eyebrow at him.

"First things first," he says. "Ask yourselves 'why'."

"Why what?" Soda speaks for the first time.

"Why go looking for her? If she took a bus back here, she'd be here by now, and she wanted you to know it, you'd know. Why do you think you need to find her so bad?"

Soda chokes a little. He says in a very small voice, "because I love her."

Steve groans audibly and Soda glares at him. Ethan asks, "does she love you?"

Soda shrugs. Feeling merciful, Ethan tells him, "well, she doesn't love me either. Hence, I'm not going after her."

"What if something bad happened to her?" Evie asks.

"What if jack shit happened to her?" Ethan replies.

Two-Bit nods. "That's what I keep tellin' them."

_Great_, Ethan thinks, _the_ _salt shaker Frank Lloyd Wright is the voice of reason among them_. Since Two-Bit is sold, he looks past him again at Sodapop. "Why?"

"I told you, man."

"Yeah, and what's the saying? If you love somebody, set them free?"

Steve can no longer keep still. "Jesus, did you and Tim stop and look at greeting cards while you were out there? What goddamned business is it of yours why Soda wants to do anything? Me, I'd be done with the tramp, but he's my friend..."

"So, you're going to follow him off the edge of the earth rather than try and talk some sense into him?" Ethan says.

Steve slaps his hand down on the table. The tower of salt and pepper shakers waivers and falls. This time Ethan and Two-Bit can't stop it. Evie grumbles, "Damnit, Steve. Two-Bit help me put these away."

She gets up from the table, looking hard at Ethan as she does. He can't tell what she wants to do, except maybe beat him over the head with a chair, and he'd dearly love to know. She remains silent, though. She breaks gazes with him and starts distributing salt shakers around the diner, followed by Two-Bit with the pepper.

"What's the plan, then?" Ethan says, more gently, to Steve and Sodapop.

Sodapop sighs and resigns himself. "We were going to follow the route the bus takes. Sandy's careful. She won't stray from a route she don't know."

"Yeah, Sandy's the Queen of Careful," Ethan says and Steve smirks a little. "Then what? Start checking truck stops and diners? Show a few pictures around?"

Soda nods. "Yeah, and put flyers up in 'em. To let her know we're looking for her."

"And if y'all are out looking for her, who is she going to contact again?"

"Evie," Steve says. "Evie's staying here."

"The hell I am," Evie shouts from across the diner. "I know her better than you and Two-Bit, Steve. And she's more likely to want to talk to me than Soda. Or Ethan."

However sound Evie's logic, Steve disagrees. "You can't just be traipsing all over the fucking countryside, Evie-"

"Why not? Sandy is."

Two-Bit says, "she's got you there, buddy."

"Shut the hell up, Mathews. Me and Soda's going. You and Evie are stayin' put, and you-" he turns to glare at Ethan, "you can just go back to Hooterville and get bent. That's all there is to it."

Ethan opens his mouth, but Evie is quicker. "Did I miss the election? Just because you're so comfortable doing the thinking for Soda don't mean you get to do it for the rest of us."

Sodapop is visibly wounded. Ethan says to Steve, "Since you obviously have such a handle on her already, what makes you think Evie won't take off as soon as you and him leave town?"

"That's why Two-Bit's stayin' here," Steve says, as though it were obvious.

Two-Bit throws his head back and wails, "Oh, God, no!" He appeals to Ethan, "that was not part of the plan, man. I never agreed to that. Christ, I'm older than both of these fools. I ain't staying around to be the damned babysitter."

"And I ain't no damned baby!" Evie is following Two-Bit back towards the booth. Her voice rises until it cracks and squeaks. "If anyone goes, it should be Ethan and me. I'm the only one she might actually want to see, and he's obligated..."

"Honey, I'm not obligated to do shit, and I'm not going anywhere with you."

She stops at his side, hands on her hips. "Then why are you here then?"

"I told you, I wanted to hear the plan, and then I wanted to talk you out of it."

"You're doing a pretty shitty job of that," Two-Bit says.

"Thank you," Ethan replies. He says to Evie, "Just let them go if they want to go. Nothing's going to come of it anyway. Stay here, go to work, get your schoolwork done. I hate that Sandy dropped out of school, kid. I don't want to be responsible for both of you falling behind. You'll be here if she calls. You can keep in touch with her grandmother. You can make the flyers..."

He has said the wrong thing. He can almost see her claws spring out. "Fuck you, too. I'm not staying behind to make stupid flyers like a cheerleader while they go off and play the big game."

"Is that what this is about? You think you're getting brushed off? There's going to be an adventure and you're going to get left back at...oh, Jesus..." The naps he frequently took during World Literature are coming back to haunt him. "…the lady with the loom...her husband went to Troy..."

"Penelope," Steve, to Ethan's surprise, answers.

"Yeah, is that it, Evie? Everyone's going to have an adventure but you?"

She won't admit it, but that's exactly what it is. Ethan can see it in her eyes. She never gets to do anything. She doesn't get pregnant. She doesn't run away. She works her ass off in a diner and goes to school. She thinks she's boring. Ethan thinks she's about as boring as a barn fire, but he's stumped as to how to convince her. Having her make the flyers isn't going to cut it.

Again, he finds himself thinking about his conversation with Tim Shepard. If he had his shot, would he take it? He should be asking himself "why?" just like he had asked Soda. The reason is he would do just about anything right now to see her happy. Evie wants a goddamned road movie, and Ethan is about to cast aside all of his good intentions in hopes of giving her one.

He stops staring up at her before Steve can knock his block off. "There should be two search parties," he says. "Steve, you and Soda head to Florida, just like you said. I got work to do at my uncle's during the day, but the rest of us can take turns kind of checking the perimeter at night, you know?"

"No," Soda says, and then, "oh, like you search around the city, in case she comes back. Or go out a little ways in case we passed her."

Ethan nods. "Right. If she decided to come looking for me, say. She knows I'm from Inola. She met me in Broken Arrow. We'll just kind of patrol around there, me and Evie...and Two-Bit." He adds Two-Bit because he's sure Steve won't go for it otherwise and because Two-Bit seems like he might have a lot more sense than he's letting on.

"Fine then," Steve says, and then looks at Evie with irritation. "That sit all right with you, miss?"

Evie nods. "It sounds all right."

"Sodapop?" Ethan says. "Two-Bit?"

"Yeah," Sodapop says. He rubs his bruised chin, looking confused for a moment, and then says, "yeah, thanks."

Two-Bit claps Ethan on the back. "Look forward to doing business with you, man."

Ethan sighs heavily and glances again at Evie. "I can hardly wait."


	5. Chapter 5

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders. The Mountain Goats song "San Bernadino" is about a woman giving birth in a hotel bathtub, by the way. I wouldn't say it's a spoiler by any stretch of the imagination; it's just a tear-jerker of a song.

**Boys and Girls in America, Part II**

We got in your car and we hit the highway

Eastern sun was rising over the mountains

Yellow and blood-red bits like a kaleidoscope

And flaming swords may guard the Garden of Eden

But we consulted maps from earlier days

Dead languages on our tongues

Holding on to our last hope

-The Mountain Goats, "San Bernadino"

Five-

"What did you say to Darry," Steve asks Soda as Sodapop slides in on the passenger side of Steve's car and closes the door as gently as he can. "In the note?"

"Just what we said last night: we're driving to Florida to Sandy's grandparents and then coming right back. We should be back by Wednesday night. We're taking your car. We got gas money. What'd you tell your dad?"

"Not a goddamned thing," Steve says. He doesn't tell Soda that he slept in his car around the corner from Curtis' last night. His dad is on one of his "get out of my sight" jags, and Steve is doing his best to comply. If he disappears for five days, his dad might actually come to miss him. He might, or he might not. Steve looks at it like an experiment.

"So, where to, buddy?" Soda asks.

"Fabulous Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then on to Little Rock."

"Think we can make it by dinner?"

"It's four hundred miles to Memphis, junior. We ought to be able to make it there by night. Unless you want to take over and drive like my grandma, then we might make it to Broken Arrow. You can have dinner with Two-Bit and your buddy Ethan."

In spite of his father and in spite of himself, Steve cannot help but getting caught up in the excitement of planning this snipe hunt. He loves the logistics of it all. He loves it when Tab A fits into Slot B and when one highway merges into another on the map. Yesterday, he sat in Mrs. Howard's English class gleefully calculating how many miles they will drive and what kind of mileage they can expect from his car. He has their gas and food budget down to the dime.

Driving east away from Tulsa, Steve is as happy as he's ever been. It doesn't make any sense- he's putting miles on his car and throwing away his hard-earned money on a hopeless mission to find a girl he wouldn't ask to iron his shirts, and he's happy about it. In all the years they've known each other called one another best friends, he and Soda have never been anywhere just the two of them.

He starts right in, bitching to Soda about how ridiculous this all is, how they're chasing a great white whale. Soda tells him that's mean: just because Sandy's pregnant and all, it's not nice to call her a whale. Steve considers explaining it to him, and then decides against it. In his own way, Sodapop is right.

As the last of the city fades into farmland, Soda sighs heavily. "Darry's sure going to blow a gasket over this. He's going to be plain awful to Ponyboy."

"You don't think he'll just save it up for you when you get back?" Steve grins. They both know Darry better than that. Darry has enough pent up rage and frustration to dish out equal shares to all of them until the end of time. "You didn't tell Pony nothing, did you? Maybe he'll just go gunning straight for Two-Bit."

"And Two-Bit will put him on to Shepard." Tim Shepard, for reasons known only to himself, took up a collection among the members of his gang for gas money for Steve and Sodapop. Steve suspects Tim did it just to annoy Darry, sort of in revenge for a beating their gang once gave Shepard's. Soda didn't look into it that deeply; he chose to think Tim was being nice. "Yeah, Tim's a peach," Steve had told him, but took the money anyway and added it into his budget.

As they head into the hills south of Tulsa, the signal begins to fade in and out. Two stations battle for the radio's soul. Soda can't tolerate the static and begins to fiddle with the dial. As Steve feared it would sooner or later, Soda's mind veers towards the philosophical. "How do you know you love Evie?"

"Who said I love Evie?" Steve says, just to be cantankerous.

Soda just laughs at him. "You are the biggest idiot for Evie, man. I don't get it at all…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"See? I got you!" Soda grins, delighted with himself for setting the trap. "You can't say you love her, but can't nobody say anything bad about her around you. God, the fur comes up at your neck like a mean old tomcat."

"Fuck off," Steve says.

"I will not fuck off. As soon as you tell me how you know, then I'll fuck off. Come on, Casanova. School me. The girl I love took off. How do you get yours to stick around?"

Steve feels his smile fading. He has no idea, really. It's surely not because Evie gives a damn about cars or rumbles. She got mad when he got the tattoo on his arm, said he looked like a sleazy merchant marine. She says he's a good kisser, but that everything else could use some work. Again, Steve has no idea what the everything else is. Is she talking about everything else on her body (in which case, no, he has no clue) or is she talking about the rest of their relationship?

His smile returns. "She keeps me guessing," he tells Soda, "And when I guess right, I feel smart."

"Yeah, but that's you, man. What about her? Why is she sticking around?"

Steve shrugs. "You'd have to ask her, I guess."

"I will. I'd like to know." Soda furrows his brow. "That Ethan guy, what do you think he has over me?"

Steve rolls his eyes. "Listen, buddy, if you're asking me why I think Sandy would throw you over for him, I couldn't begin to guess. I don't see it, but then girls are weird. Sandy is the weirdest."

"What's weird about Sandy?"

"She's…I don't know…she's spacey, and not like you're spacey either," Steve ducks towards the window to avoid Soda's punch in his arm. "It's like her head's always someplace else. With Evie, damnit, that girl will fight with me until I'd like to blow a hole in my head, but at least I know what she's thinking. Sandy always just acted like everything was fine, and then it turned out it wasn't."

Soda thinks on that for a minute. "You don't like her, do you?"

"Sandy? No, I don't. I don't got enough time on this earth to sit around trying to figure out what a girl's thinking. I'd prefer just to be told even if it's something I don't want to hear."

"Well you left Evie back there with Ethan. You totally confident of that?"

"I left her back there with Two-Bit, too. I'm pretty sure nothing's going to happen there."

"That's Two-Bit, though. There's something different about that Ethan guy."

"Yeah, he's different all right." Steve rubs his nose with the back of his hand.

"I'd like to know what Sandy saw in him."

"I'd like to knock him on his ass."

"What for? You just said you never liked Sandy."

"It's the principle of it. Frankly, I don't get why you're so eager to forgive and forget. When I look at them, I see two people who screwed you over."

"I'm not just forgiving and forgetting. I'd just like to know why, that's all."

"Why she did it with Ethan? Why not just ask him? It would be a lot quicker."

They snip back and forth at one another all the way to the Arkansas state line. Soda wonders aloud if they should do something ceremonial, like break a bottle over the Arkansas River Bridge. Steve says he thinks the truckers just honk, and so they do too.

"Well, here we go, buddy," Steve says. "The first bus station. Where's them flyers Evie and Anna Lee made?"

"Do you think she's lonely?" Soda asks. His mind is not entirely on the business at hand. "I wonder what it's like to be pregnant."

"How the hell should I know if she's lonely?" Steven grumbles, and then, "I'd think it would feel damned creepy. Like being possessed or something."

Again, Soda is quiet for a while, and Steve knows something is bothering him. When he speaks again, his voice is more quiet. "How come I didn't know?"

Steve is beginning to think he'd like to stuff Soda in the trunk and head back to Tulsa, but he plays along anyway. "Didn't know what? That she was fooling around or that she was pregnant?"

"Either I guess."

"Because you trust people too much. It never occurred to you that she would cheat, or that anybody would. And you didn't know she was pregnant because she didn't look pregnant yet."

Soda smiles at that. "So you don't trust people."

"Generally, no. I trust you. I trust Evie. I really want to trust that Augie ain't going to fire us when we get back."

Steve knows that his answers still come up short with Soda. He is thankful when they pull up in front of the bus station, or rather the gas station where the bus stops, on the eastern edge of Ft. Smith. He looks at the flyers Evie sent with Soda and smiles. This is why he loves Evie; in Steve's eyes, Evie is smart as fuck.

There is no picture of Sandy on the flyer. Under the handwritten headline "Sandy is lost, and we are lost without her" is a picture of Sandy's dog. Sandy took the photo herself for an art class, and Evie thought it would be better to use it. It would preserve Sandy's privacy, she said, but Sandy herself would recognize the photo of the dog if she saw it.

If she saw it. Steve stretches his arms over his head and watches Soda ask the girl behind the Greyhound counter for permission to hang the sign. Again, he is frustrated by the futility of it all. He turns to face the street and wonders about the destination of two airmen in uniform strolling out of a café. He wonders if they are headed to Vietnam.

Something hits him in the back of the head and he turns around. Soda is grinning at him, having tossed the Mars bar that jarred Steve out of his daydream.

"Got you a little snack, buddy. Got to keep your strength up. Where to next? Little Rock?"

"Little Rock," Steve replies. He takes the candy bar from where it landed on the roof of the car and looks up at the sky before he gets in. It's going to rain here, but he is headed to Little Rock.


	6. Chapter 6

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Boys and Girls in America**

Six-

The little ball of wadded up straw wrapper hits Evie's arm and rolls in front of her on the counter. She breaks away from the magazine she's been reading, picks up the wrapper ball, and throws it back at Two-Bit. He ducks and lets it rolls beneath a table. He sits down at the counter in front of Evie, chewing on a straw.

"Are we bored yet?" He asks.

Evie is anything but bored. She is on-edge. The sun is setting, and she hasn't heard from Steve and Soda yet. Ethan has told her that he's making the rounds with Two-Bit tonight. She feels caged and anxious.

"I don't think that would be a good look for you," Two-Bit says when she doesn't reply. He taps at a picture in the open page of her magazine.

"That's Peter Tork, genius. He ain't a girl, he's a Monkee."

"Does he make wrenches, or what?"

"What?" Evie shakes her head at him, and then decides to ignore his question entirely. "Why haven't Steve and Soda called?"

"Come on, Evie. Was Steve the kind of guy to call you all the time before? What made you think he was going to start now?"

"I know, but Sandy and Soda used to talk on the phone for days. I thought I could at least rely on him."

"Well, if it would make you feel better, I'll go across the street and call you from the payphone."

Evie laughs. "That's a brilliant idea, Two-Bit. You could harass me and tie up the phone line at the same time."

"You know me, always thinking. You seen Shepard today?"

Evie nods. "He came in earlier, drank a pop, took a handful of matchbooks, and left. God, he's weird. And your mom just gets riled when he's around."

"Yeah, I think she kind of likes him myself," Two-Bit shrugs. "Remember how she had a sweet spot for Johnny because his mom was such a harpy? I think she's trying to replace him with Shepard."

"Shepard for Johnny. She's hard-up."

Before Two-Bit can reply, the bell above the door signals its opening. Evie peers around Two-Bit, hoping to see Ethan. Her heart catches in her throat. It's Darrel Curtis.

"Two-Bit, duck and cover," she whispers. Two-Bit wheels around on his stool and mutters, "aww, shit…"

"Hi, Darry," Evie says brightly, if not innocently. "What can I get you?"

Darry is pissed, as evidenced by the veins popping out on his neck. He found Soda's poorly-composed and somewhat cryptic note this morning as he was leaving for work, but couldn't do anything about it at the time because he had to get to a job site. Now, he's had all day to stew about it, and he's about to boil over.

"I'd like to start with an appetizer of 'what the hell is going on'. Then I'll go straight for the main course of 'what the hell were you thinking', and I'd love for y'all to join me."

Two-Bit grins his most zany grin. "Come on, Darrel, didn't you tell me just yesterday that there wasn't a single sane thought floating around inside my gourd? Do you really want to know what I'm thinking?"

"Just knock it off, Two-Bit. Don't act like you don't get the gravity of this because I know you do. Where the hell did they go?"

Before Two-Bit can enrage Darry any further, Evie breaks in, "They did go looking for Sandy, but they have plenty of gas money. We all chipped in. That new guy is covering for them at the DX. Remember when Augie told them to take a few days after Johnny and Dally died? Well, they just told him they needed to take it now."

Evie is certain that Darry is going to strangle her. He takes a deep breath and says, "And when you say "we all chipped in", who is the 'we'? How much of north Tulsa is in on this?"

"Me, him," she nods to Two-Bit. "Shepard-"

"The whole Shepard crew, really," Two-Bit cuts in. Darrell growls.

"And Ethan."

"And Ethan is?"

Two-Bit shifts a little to look around Darry and nod towards a truck entering the parking lot. "That would be him now."

Evie is only somewhat relieved when Ethan enters the diner. Usually, no one is bigger than Darrel Curtis, but Ethan stands a couple of inches taller. He's three years older, too, although he looks younger than Darry. He should make a formidable impression, but instead, sensing something is wrong, Ethan takes off his cap and ducks his head. He scratches the back of his neck and looks to Evie for an explanation.

"Ethan, this is Darrel Curtis. He's Soda's brother. Darrel, Ethan Irwin is…"

Ethan extends a hand to Darry, who doesn't shake it. "Ethan Irwin is talking is way out another ass-beating, it seems."

"Who are you, and what do you know about what my dumbass little brother got himself into?"

"He tried to talk us out of it, actually, Darry," Evie says.

Two-Bit adds, "Although he did do a pretty shitty job."

Ethan mouths a silent "thank you" to Two-Bit and turns to Darry once again. "Yeah, I guess I'm more accustomed to being the dumbass little brother myself. They're on their way to Tallahassee, following the Greyhound route."

Darry sighs. "I know that. I know what they're looking for, too. What I want to know is why didn't anyone-" he looks at Two-Bit- "stop them, and why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Come on, Darry. He's with Steve…"

"Great, he's with Steve. What's the worst that could possibly happen?"

"Well, from Soda's point of view, nothing. They don't find her and they come home," Ethan says. He tries his best to sound nonchalant, but it only serves to annoy Darry further.

"Once again, who are you?"

Ethan sighs. He doesn't like saying this out loud. He never knows how to word it properly, to strike the right balance between taking it seriously and keeping it distant. To his dismay, Two-Bit beats him to the punch, "He's the guy who knocked up Sandy."

Darrel Curtis looks at Ethan for a long time. Again, he inhales deeply, and Ethan plants his feet, preparing to take a hit. To his relief, Darry shakes his head at Ethan and turns to Two-Bit and Evie. "I want to know as soon as you hear from them. Tell Soda he is to call me immediately. I'm going to go find Shepard and put his lights out. Either of you seen him?"

Two-Bit shakes his head. Evie says, "Not since about three-thirty."

Without another word, Darry turns and exits the diner. Evie drops her head down on to her magazine. Two-Bit says to her, "Well, you ain't bored anymore, are you?"

Without lifting her head, Evie waves both Two-Bit and Ethan off. "Go. Just both of you go quickly. And as soon as you're gone, I want you to know I'm going to eat that gallon of chocolate ice cream that's back there."

Two-Bit shrugs at Ethan and then heads for the door. Ethan says to Evie, "just save me some pie, will you, kid?"

Evie waves her hand again. Ethan thinks about patting the top of her head, but thinks better of it and hurries after Two-Bit.

* * *

Steve dials the number for the diner and deposits dime after dime. It rings twice and Doreen answers. She hands the phone right over to Evie. There is no wait time. Evie must be standing right there.

"Hey, baby, guess where I am?"

"Hi, I give up. Where are you?"

"I'm at Elvis' house. He's making Soda a peanut butter and 'nanner sandwich as we speak. We made it to Memphis."

Evie laughs. "God, you guys must've burned up the road. Are you staying there tonight?"

"Nah, I think we're going to head towards Tupelo. Ain't too excited about staying in a strange city. Two-Bit there?"

"No, he and Ethan already took off. Darry was here. Boy, is he pissed. He wants Soda to call him."

Steve rolls his eyes. "We'll take that under advisement. He wasn't too rough on you, was he, baby?"

"No, he was just Darry. Said he was going to go take it out on Tim. I don't think he was too impressed with Ethan, though."

"Tell him to take a number."

"Steve," she seems to read his mind. "Just don't worry about it."

"I ain't worried. Listen, I'll straighten it out with Darry when we get back, okay?"

"Okay. How's Soda doing?"

"He's all right. I think it's starting to hit him, you know. This is one big-ass bus station here. I don't know how he thinks we're going to get her attention just doing this. I think it's taken some of the steam out of him."

"Well, be nice to him, all right?"

"Shit…yeah, I'll buy him an ice cream cone, okay. Listen, I got to go, but I'll call tomorrow night. We ought to make it to Tallahassee or at least to Montgomery. Okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be here." As soon as she says it, they both know she isn't going to be there. Tomorrow night, she will be out driving with Ethan. Steve knows that Evie is thrilled about it, and this doesn't thrill him in the least.

"All right. Well, I'll call. Hey, I miss you, kid," he says and then hangs up before she can say that she misses him too.


	7. Chapter 7

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders.

**Boys and Girls In America**

Seven-

"Do you have to do that?" Ethan is driving, and Two-Bit is sitting next to him flipping the blade in and out and in and out on his butterfly knife.

"Why? Make you nervous?"

"Hell, yes, it makes me nervous. We get up into town here, we can stop at the store and get you a nice toy."

Two-Bit grins, folds the blade shut, and puts it back in his pocket. "Nah, that's all right. I could use a drink, though."

Ethan agrees to that. They are coming up on Catoosa, having wandered out to Inola and checked on Ethan's horse. Most of the time, Ethan isn't even keeping a look-out for Sandy. He just drives.

"You know," Two-Bit muses, "I never did get what was so special about Sandy."

"Well, she's losing her charm with me real quick, let me tell you."

Two-Bit continues. "Normally, I'm all about a pretty little blond. Maybe she was too scrawny for me. Nothing to hold on to."

Ethan grins. "Ah, she's built all right. I think she got me with the whole damsel-in-distress thing. The night I met her, y'all had left her behind to go pick a fight with someone. Something about a girl who's pissed off…"

"Damn, you want a pissed-off girl, you ought to be looking at Evie. There's a chick who pulls no punches. Too bad she ain't blonde, though." Two-Bit shrugs.

"Yeah, damned shame," Ethan mumbles. He pulls the truck up in front of a gas station. "What are you drinking?"

"I got it, man," Two-Bit says and jumps down out of the truck. Ethan watches moths circling the neon sign above the door until Two-Bit returns with a paper bag under his arm. He gets back in the truck, opens the bag, and hands Ethan a bottle of Grain Belt.

"Thanks," Ethan says.

Two-Bit continues their conversation from before as if he had never left the truck. The thought in his head was on hold, and has now switched back on. "So that how it happened?"

"What?"

"You and Sandy. I remember that night, when we left Sandy behind. It was her that talked us into going out to the rodeo to begin with. We were cruising around in town and this bunch of Socs kept following us. Sandy had the bright idea we ought to just skip town for a couple of hours instead of fighting 'em off."

"Sounds like a bright enough idea to me."

Two-Bit shrugs. "Probably was. Steve and me was pretty lit, though. We was more in the mood for a fight. Soda don't really drink…"

"Ironic."

"Huh?"

"That he don't drink, and yet he's named after one."

Two-Bit shakes his head. "He consumes fluids. He just don't get drunk."

"I figured. I was kidding," Ethan grins and shakes his head.

"Anyway, wasn't hard to talk Soda into it, though. I guess between Stevie and me being three sheets and Soda just being Soda, we sort underestimated the amount of time it would take to go find those guys. I don't even know how long we left Sandy there on her lonesome."

"Long enough," Ethan says, surprised that he is able to make a joke about it. "And she wasn't that lonesome."

"Apparently not," Two-Bit raises his bottle to toast Ethan. "That's all it took, huh? You never say her again after that?"

"Just that once. I'm just that amazing," Ethan rolls his eyes. He puts the truck in neutral and lets it roll backwards into the road before he pops the clutch and puts it in gear. "It doesn't bother you, does it?"

"What? You and Sandy?"

Ethan nods. "Yeah, Steve seems like he'd just as soon as kill me over it. You and Soda not as close?"

Two-Bit grins. "I don't know. Maybe me and my girlfriend just ain't as close. Soda tends to get a little more hung up on 'em then I do."

Ethan ponders that for a minute. "So what's the story with Evie and Steve then?"

"Them two are the closest of all," Two-Bit says without evening thinking about it. "It may seem like they do nothing but snipe, but it's like they share a brain or something. Either fuckin' or fightin', like my mom would say."

Ethan laughs out loud and almost spits out his beer. The idea that anyone's mom would use the phrase "fucking or fighting" is almost too much for him to comprehend. After that, though, he starts to feel a little sad. Maybe it's the beer. Maybe it's that he's beginning to wonder if what is fueling his need to be near Evie is that he doesn't have a chance in hell. His already muddled decision-making is further confused when Two-Bit says, "They all scare the shit out me, truth be told. Maybe that's why I never just stick with one. One girl, you know. There's always something more going on with them than what they're telling you. Learned that from my mom. She's fuckin' smart, you know. Book smart, but she'll never let on. Just every once in a while, it slips out and she starts talking about art and impressionism or some shit. Evie's like that. I can see it sometimes when her eyes dart around that there's just something Steve's missing."

Ethan watches Two-Bit intently out of the corner of his eye, waiting for him to elaborate. Two-Bit just shrugs and tosses his beer bottle out into the night. "'Course I'm missing it, too, I guess. I sure as hell can't tell you what it is."

* * *

Ethan slides down from his mattress and on to the floor. The room won't stop spinning and he's afraid he will fall off of his bed otherwise. How he made it up the stairs of his aunt's house, he isn't quite sure. He can't even remember that long ago, although it has probably only been fifteen or twenty minutes.

He bought a six pack after dropping Two-Bit in Tulsa and another in Catoosa. He drank steadily as he drove the thirty miles to his home: a 12- ounce can every 2 miles gives him a blood alcohol level of .187 by the time his truck hits the gravel of the lane that leads to his aunt and uncle's farmhouse. He parks the truck next to the barn and downs the remaining two cans of beer. He ought to be in jail. Instead, he makes it to his own bed, and then down to the safer option of the painted floor.

It isn't enough. He can still calculate his blood alcohol level (a trick he learned from his brother) in his head, he hasn't passed out, and he is still thinking about her. Goddamn, he does not want her to come home.

Ethan doesn't want to have a baby. He wants Sandy to stay gone forever so that he doesn't have to think about it.

His Aunt Libby's footsteps on the floorboards frighten him just a little. She has surprised him, and he's busted. He feels like he did when he was in high school, sneaking into her house in the dead of night.

"Are you all right?" She asks him. She pauses for a second, and then asks, "did the beer truck roll over on you, son?"

"I'm all right, Auntie. I'm all right. I just had a couple too many."

"A couple?" Even in the dark, he can feel her eyeing him with distain. He knows her arms are folded across her chest and her lips are pressed tightly together. He won't look up at her; he just knows. Ethan feels her footsteps again. She crosses the room and sits down on the edge of his bed. She reaches out and takes the Sooners cap off of his head. "You going to tell me?"

"It's just dumb stuff, Auntie. It's not worth telling."

"Ethan, why do you always assume it's not worth telling? You always think you ain't got anything to tell. If I'm asking you, then it's because I want to hear it."

He sighs. "It ain't that. I just don't want to. I did something real stupid, and I don't want anyone to know."

"More stupid than getting so drunk you can't even make it into your own bed?"

"There's this girl, Aunt Libby. She's pregnant, and it's mine."

The mattress squeaks softly as she shifts her weight. "Are you going to marry her?"

"I don't give a damn about her. That's the thing. I don't want to see her again, and she took off anyway, so I'd guess she don't want to see me. Plus, there's this other girl…"

The hat in her hand comes down with a "twack!" and hits him across the forehead. "Is she pregnant, too? Just how busy have you been, child?"

"God, no, Auntie, no," he realizes he's cowering. When he tries to straighten himself up again, the movement makes him dizzy. "No, I just like her so much better, but it's never going to happen, and it shouldn't happen, and I have no idea what I'm doing."

Aunt Libby sighs heavily. Ethan waits for the 'I Knew This Day Would Come' speech he's been expecting. He has always been afraid of being a burden, of disappointing her. He should be taking care of her by now. Instead, he's this close to begging her to take the decision out of his hands.

"Ethan," she says. "You know if you were one of my kids, I'd kick you out, but you're not. You're Ester's kid, and she would never do such a thing. So, I'm not, but I'm going to tell you this- you got to quit drinking, son. Every time I turn around, you got a drink in your hand, and every time you start, you do something stupid. I want it to stop."

She stands up and tosses his cap in his lap. Ethan hears himself say, "yes, ma'am," very quietly.

"I don't want to hear it from you now," she tells him. "Not when you're drunk. I don't want to hear any empty promises from you. You get some sleep, and you tell me again in morning when you're in your right mind. Understand?"

Ethan doesn't know if he's supposed to say "yes, ma'am" again or not. He stands up to get back in bed and stumbles against the wall. She is still there, watching him, and it makes him want to die.

She asks him, "The girl who came to visit you when you were bailing hay, which one was that?"

Ethan remembers that his aunt had passed Evie that day, when Evie had brought him her letter to Sandy to read. "That's the other girl. The not-pregnant one."

"She's awful young, Ethan."

"Yeah, they're both awful young."

She pauses again and he takes the opportunity to sit down on his bed. "Ethan, is it because you think a girl that young's the only kind that's going to be impressed by you?"

This is too much thought for him to wrap his head around. Rather than say, "what?" and get swatted again, he remains silent, knowing she will continue anyway.

"In the morning," she says. "You take a few days off from the drinking, look at them with a clear head, and I bet you'll wonder what you ever saw."

Before she leaves him, he whispers to her, "Auntie, do I have to marry her? I don't want to marry her."

She snorts a little. He realizes she is actually laughing at him now. "Is she even old enough to get married?"

"Yeah, she is. Her boyfriend…"Oh, God, he doesn't want to get into this. He doesn't want her to know how complicated it all is. "She has a boyfriend. He was going to marry her."

"Boy, you are a piece of work. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to tell your uncle we need to get some more horses to keep you busy."

With that, she leaves Ethan alone. He lets himself fall back, but hits his head against the wall and he calls out "fuck!" to his empty room.

"Ethan Matthew!" She shouts back from the hall. Just before he passes out, Ethan realizes that he is smiling in the dark.


	8. Chapter 8

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders

**Boys and Girls In America**

Eight-

The next evening Ethan is sitting at the counter of the diner waiting for Evie to clock out. He is spinning a toothpick on his empty pie plate and trying to avoid the looks the other waitress keeps shooting him. He knows she is Two-Bit's mom, but she doesn't come across like anybody's mother he's ever met. She is certainly isn't like his own, but then Ethan figures his own mother and his experience with her is sort of off the map anyway. What does he know about mothers?

Ethan's mother was sick for most of his childhood. She was there, but she wasn't. Even when she was well enough to live in the house with him, his father, and his brother, she was still like someone he visited. She spent most of her time confined to a chair and then a bed. When he was very small and she could still walk with crutches and braces on her legs, she would sit on the porch with him at night and tell him stories. When he was older and she could no longer walk or speak, he would sit next to her bed in the evenings and read her the paper. His brother, Jeremy, was a big football player, and Ethan would save the stories about Jeremy's games for last because he knew she liked them the best.

Everyone expected Ethan to play football, too, but it never interested him. He liked horses, and his uncle taught him how to ride. When Ethan's mother died, when he was a junior in high school, and his already distant father became even more distant and quiet, Ethan just left the house. He moved two miles down the road to his uncle's house and became his ranch hand.

He didn't tell anyone when he started roping; it just never occurred to him that he had anyone to tell. He didn't even know if he was any good at it until the first time he won something. After that, though, he couldn't have hid it if he wanted to. He had the belt buckle to wear, first of all, and then half the rest of the county told his Aunt Libby. She came to see him rope every weekend then. At first, it felt strange to have someone watching him and his performance suffered for a few weeks. He got used to it, though, when he realized that she didn't care how well he did. He was like watching TV. He entertained her, and it seemed like the least he could do for the woman who fed him and washed his clothes.

The woman who is watching him now is nothing like his Aunt Libby or his mother. When she decides to say something, she is going to be damned direct about it. She might even raise her voice. For the moment, though, she is busy with other customers, so she just keeps shooting him looks every time she passes with another tray.

The bell over the door jingles. Ethan can feel Tim Shepard before he sees him at his side. He glances over at Tim without turning his head. "Afternoon."

Tim says, "hmm," and nothing else. He stands on his toes to lean over the counter and search for something behind it. Neither Ethan nor Tim sees Doreen come back. She is just there on guard next to the register. She slaps Tim's hand.

"I know you can speak, son, because I heard you cuss a blue streak in front of my twelve-year old daughter at the movies last weekend. Whatever you want, just ask for it."

Tim straightens up and says, "Yes, ma'am. I just want a pack of sugar, ma'am."

Doreen tosses one at him and asks, frowning, "You want a cup of coffee with that?"

Tim says nothing.

"You don't want any pack of sugar. You're waiting for me to go away. Well, now I'm not going away. What is it you want?"

Tim frowns and rolls his eyes in defeat. "May I have a cup of coffee, please?"

Doreen sets a cup down in front of him and fills it with coffee. Under her watchful eye, Tim pours the sugar into it. They glare at one another for a moment more, and she sighs loudly and walks away. Tim looks at Ethan, "Want a cup of coffee?"

As hung over as he is, Ethan still declines. "No, thanks. What is it with you and her?"

"She don't like me. Thinks I'm a bad influence."

Ethan laughs. "On Two-Bit?"

"I guess so. Or on Evie. Who the hell knows?"

"Evie- that would explain it. She's been giving me the evil eye since I walked in here. Maybe she thinks I'm a bad influence on Evie, too."

Tim narrows his eyes. "You are a bad influence on Evie."

"How so?"

"You're so full of shit, man. Driving around with her when he boyfriend's out of town. Hell, you got her boyfriend to go out of town. Hanging around in here waiting for her to get off of work."

"You're just jealous. And I did not make her idiot boyfriend to leave town."

Tim shrugs. "Tell that to Mrs. Mathews. She's coming back."

"Then you'd better drink your coffee like a good boy."

Doreen appears in front of them again. "Are you done?" She asks Ethan.

"Yes, thank you. I think he's still working on that coffee, though."

"Sweet Jesus, don't tell me you two are working together on something."

Ethan and Tim exchange looks. "We work on things in spite of each other," Ethan says.

Doreen takes Ethan's plate, shaking her head. She starts to walk towards the kitchen, but turns back. She leans in towards both of them, and obediently they lean towards her. "You-" she nods to Ethan, "are too old and you-" she pokes Tim in the chest, "are a criminal. Whatever designs you have on her, I want you both to knock it off."

Tim leans back, smirking, but Ethan protests. "I know how old she is, and I don't have any designs."

"Son, I know you don't come in here for the stimulating conversation with Tim," Doreen says. "Whatever designs you say you don't have, are you sure she knows that?"

"She already has a boyfriend."

"Yeah, and you're aware he ain't been around the past couple of days. Absence don't always make the heart grow fonder, son. Add a third party, and people start getting confused. Now, Evie don't get off work for another half hour. You finished your food and near as I can tell you're just loitering. Both of you, hit the road."

"Goddamnit," Tim says and Doreen shoos him with a wave of her hand. "Go!"

Ethan pays for his pie and Tim's cup of coffee, as Tim has already stalked out the door. He jogs a few steps to catch up with him in the parking lot.

"What were you looking for in there, anyway?"

"Me? Nothing." Tim shrugs and offers Ethan a cigarette.

Ethan shakes his head. "You weren't looking for anything behind the counter?"

"Nah, sometimes I just do that to piss her off. It's like a little game. My ma don't give a damn what I'm into. It's kind of funny when Two-Bit's ma does."

"That's kind of sad, Tim," Ethan says.

Tim shrugs. "I take what I can get. What are you doing now?"

"Well, I was going to have another piece of pie, but now it looks like I'm scratching my ass for the next half hour."

Tim jerks his head in the direction of his car or a car, anyway. It's a different one than the Packard he was driving the night Ethan first met him. "Get in. You and I will get a head start on the evening's search."

When Ethan pauses, Tim says, "don't worry. I ain't going to kill you."

"I wasn't worried about that. I was wondering if the car was stolen."

Tim grins. "Yeah, the car is stolen."

"Okay, as long as we're on the level about that, then," Ethan follows Tim to the car and gets in.

They drive for several blocks south from the diner. The condition of the neighborhood around them deteriorates and Ethan begins to wonder if maybe Tim is looking for a place to stash his body after all. Just when he is about to start asking questions, Tim stops the car and nods across the street at a small house surrounded by a battered fence.

"Seems funny to me that none of you looked here yet," Tim says. "That's Sandy's house."

Ethan whistles quietly. He can't imagine someone as bright and shining as Sandy living in such a place. The paint is peeling and the porch looks as though it might collapse at any moment, most likely taking the rest of the house with it. The yard has been scratched to dirt by a large dog which lays chained to a tree in the front yard. A scrawny cat emerges from under the porch and the dog opens one eye, but makes no move to chase it.

"Well," Ethan says. He can't imagine why she would ever come back to this. She ought to be running as far and as fast as she can in the opposite direction.

"She ain't been back here," Tim says, starting the car moving down the street again. "I check every now and again."

"Really?"

"Really. When I got nothing else to do."

Ethan wonders if she should marry Sandy, if they ever find her, just to get her out this place. Then, he finds himself wondering where Evie lives. He doesn't ask Tim to take him there, although he's sure Tim knows where Evie's house is, too. Instead, he asks, "You think Two-Bit's mom is right? You think I'm confusing Evie?"

Tim shrugs. "I don't know. Probably, but then I don't really know what Evie wants."

"You think Evie knows what Evie wants?"

"Who knows? Probably some amalgamation of you and Steve. She's known him forever and you're something new. And you're not like us."

"How do you fit in to that then?"

"I don't," Tim says. "She don't want me for nothing."

Ethan drums on the dashboard with his fingers. "We have to find her. We have to find Sandy quick, or I'm going to fuck this all up."

"What if you can't find her? That going to be your excuse to go and fuck it up anyway?"

Ethan looks over at Tim, who is looking serene behind the wheel of his stolen car, wandering the most rugged neighborhood streets Ethan has ever seen in his life. The sober wash of clarity his Aunt Libby promised has yet to hit him, and Ethan is still confused. All he wants right now is to go home where all he has to do is show up and someone is happy. The moment he showed up in Tulsa, it seems to him, he started making everyone miserable.

Somewhere a church bell rings. It is seven o'clock, and Evie will be done with work. Ethan can picture her tapping her foot and struggling with a lighter to get a cigarette going. Tim must be visualizing the same thing because he says, "Evie's off. Time to head back?"

Ethan nods. He wonders if Tim would consider joining them on their run down to Broken Arrow. He looks Tim over and smiles a little to think that he is considering making this guy his security blanket.

Tim senses Ethan's gaze and says, "what?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering what you were up to tonight."

"Same thing I'm always up to." Tim flips his cigarette butt out the window.

"Which is?"

"This. Pretty much."

"Ever been to Broken Arrow?"

"Got a warrant there," a smile sneaks across Tim's face. Whatever the warrant is for, it must have been worth it.

"So, you ain't up for joining me and Evie on a ride down there?"

"I didn't say that. You up for maybe getting caught driving around with a known fugitive?"

"You said the car is stolen, right?" Ethan says. "So, really, I'm already doing that."

Tim smiles for real this time. "This is true. Let's get back there and see what kind of mood Evie's in. Then I'll think about it. If she's all pissed off about something, you can have her all to yourself."

Ethan nods. "Well, let's hope we get to her before Steve and Soda call then."


	9. Chapter 9

SE Hinton owns The Outsiders and Tim.

**Boys And Girls In America**

**Part III**

She was only sixteen

Only sixteen with eyes that would glow

But she was too young to fall in love

And I was too young to know.

-Sam Cooke, "Only Sixteen"

Nine-

Sodapop and Steve sit in the car for a good while looking at the house. A light is on in the front room. There is movement behind the gauzy curtains.

"Well, someone's in there," Steve says. Out of habit, he runs a comb through his hair. When he has it just the way he wants it, he stuffs the comb back in his pocket and opens the car door. "Come on, buddy. This is the moment we've all been waiting for."

Sodapop is nervous and pensive. He follows Steve up the front walk to the house like a man walking to his own hanging. Steve can't read him, so he chooses not to pay attention. Instead, he focuses on the mission ahead. He rings the doorbell.

The woman who answers the door, to their surprise, does not look at them with any sort of suspicion. Do hoody-looking teenage boys visit her after dark on a regular basis, Steve wonders. She looks like such a kind woman. He decides to try and think like Sodapop would: maybe she's just a kind woman.

"Mrs. Sullivan?" He asks. "I'm Steve Randle, this is Sodapop Curtis. We're friends of Sandy's. We came down from Tulsa…" And there he stops because he knows from there on out anything that comes out of his mouth will be all his own opinion, and most likely it will get the door slammed in their faces.

The woman's eyes widen. "Have you heard from her?"

Soda shakes his head. "No, ma'am. We came looking for her. We've been stopping along the way, putting up signs."

The woman looks at Soda for an uncomfortable moment. "You're the one who sends the letters, aren't you?"

Soda nods.

"I sent them all back, and you still came looking. I may have misjudged you, son."

Steve feels relief wash over him. Well, she's not completely dim anyway. She gets that Soda's a good egg. She'd be a fool to not be able to see that in him.

Mrs. Sullivan beckons the boys into the front room of her house. She explains that her husband will be home shortly. He still works a few hours a week at the store they ran together when they were raising their family. She tells them they are in time for dinner. Soda looks so tired, she says, and she directs him to the bathroom to wash up.

Steve doesn't know how he could look any less tired, but he remains still and waits his turn. He sits on the edge of Mrs. Sullivan's sofa, taking in the room. It is the kind of decorating scheme he hates, when he notices decorating at all: lots of white, lots of doilies and little china shit, lots of things he could break or get dirty if he allows himself to relax. Steve remains on guard for the sake of Mrs. Sullivan's figurines.

"How long have you boys been driving," she asks him, returning from the kitchen and handing him- to his horror- a glass of juice, something that could stain.

Steve grips the juice. "Just a couple of days, ma'am. We knew she took the bus down here, so we stopped at all the stations along the way in case she was taking it back. That was the best idea we could come up with, that she'd just try to get back the way she came."

Mrs. Sullivan nods. "I think that's very smart. I don't know if Sandy's so smart, though. I don't know what she was thinking."

Steve smirks. Perhaps this woman is a kindred spirit of his. "I don't either, ma'am. She's sure got my buddy all torn up."

"But Sandy said the baby wasn't his."

"Yeah, and I don't know if he don't believe it or just don't care. He sure cares for her. He's that kind of guy. Just wants to know she's safe."

The bathroom door opens down the hall and Soda enters the room. He's combed his hair and washed his face, and his eyes look a little brighter. Eager to escape, Steve hands the glass of juice off to him and darts to the bathroom. More white stuff. White towels. Steve rolls his eyes. He puts some effort into rinsing the soap after he uses it. He looks at himself in the mirror over the sink and shakes his head. The soft, angelic surroundings don't do anything to make him look any softer or more angelic. He feels like a toad in the middle of some kind of enchanted lacey garden.

As Steve comes back into the living room, Mr. Sullivan enters through the front door. His wife introduces him, and the boys shake his hand. Steve is relieved to see that Mr. Sullivan's face is stubbled and that he is leaving a trail of saw dust. He wears overalls and they have grease on them.

They eat dinner and talk mostly about Sandy. Soda charms the socks off of the Sullivans, and Steve sits back and lets him do it. Mrs. Sullivan is pretty remorseful about the fight she had with Sandy; Soda tells her it's okay. Sandy wasn't acting like herself. Steve thinks Sandy was acting exactly like herself, but he keeps it to himself and enjoys his food.

Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan insist that the boys stay the night. There is the guest room and the sofa. They need to get a good night's sleep before they take off again. As she loads Steve's arms up with quilts (which he can't imagine needing because this is, after all, Florida), she asks them if there is anyone back home they'd like to call.

"Yeah," Steve says. "You should call your brother, buddy."

Soda gives him a look. "How kind of you to remind me. Yes, ma'am, I should call my brother and let him know we made it."

He follows her back to the kitchen, where the phone is, smacking Steve on the back of the head as he passes. Steve grins at him and sits back down on the edge of the sofa. He considers asking if he can call his dad, but decides it's a ridiculous notion. He knows Evie won't be around tonight. He has a sudden urge to call someone just to show Sandy's grandparents that he has someone to call, but Evie is the only one he really wants to talk to.

Soda doesn't do much talking on his end when he gets a hold of Darry. Steve can hear him saying, "yeah, yeah, I know," over and over again. When Soda returns to the living room, he is shaking his head.

"Just happy to know you're alive, is he?" Steve says.

"Yeah, so he can kill me himself when we get back," Soda replies. The Sullivans have gone to bed. Soda sits down on the floor next to Steve on the couch. For a while, they stare in silence at the dark silhouettes of furniture in the quiet room.

Soda says, "Buddy, I'm starting to have some trouble with this."

"Starting? Just now?"

"I know. You thought this was half-cocked from the beginning, but Darry said something to me when I was talking to him that sort of hit me."

"What's that?" Steve braces him. Darry can say some rough stuff when he's mad.

"He asked me why I was putting so much effort in a girl who didn't give a damn about me. Same question everyone else asks me, right? But then he said, if I wanted to take care of someone, if I wanted a family so bad, maybe I ought to start thinking about the one I got. Like what if I had my head so wrapped up around Sandy that I wasn't thinking about what could happen to Ponyboy?"

_Finally_, Steve thinks, _someone finds a line of logic Soda can understand_. He remains quiet, though, and Soda continues, "Damnit, what if the social workers showed up and I got Pony sent away just because I had to go chasing some dumb girl? And Darry, he's such a heavy sometimes, but I think it's because he'd go over the edge if he lost us. I should've been thinking about both of them."

Steve pats Soda on the shoulder. Sometimes he really appreciates Darry for being mean. When he is, it means Steve gets to be the good guy.

"Here's what we do, man," he says. "Tomorrow, we head out early and head back hell bent for the election. All right? We don't even have to stop anywhere this time. Just burgers and to take a piss. We'll be back on your porch before the social workers have time to open their files on Monday morning. Okay?"

Soda nods. "I'm going to bed then. Thanks, man."

Steve just grunts. Soda stands up and heads towards the back bedroom. Steve had insisted he take the room with the bed mostly because Steve knew it was probably where Sandy had slept, and sleeping in that bed creeps him out even more than sleeping in the immaculate living room. He lays back on the couch and pulls a quilt up over him to hide from the little china eyes peering all around him.


	10. Chapter 10

SE Hinton is Queen of The Outsiders.

**Boys and Girls In America**

Ten-

Evie is sitting in the cab of Ethan's truck between Ethan and Tim Shepard. She hasn't seen Ethan drink a beer yet this evening, and he's jumpy. He's drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and he keeps talking about crops. Tim is looking out the window and frowning. Tim doesn't have anything to say about crops of any kind, nor does Evie.

As they get closer to Broken Arrow and the sky darkens, they fall in line with an increasing number of trucks and horse trailers on the highway. Ethan drives south, away from the street that will take them through the center of the town.

"Where are you going?" Evie asks. She is already irritated. She is irritated by Tim's presence, and she is still steaming from a brief lecture by Doreen earlier in the evening when she caught Evie doodling in her science notebook. Evie was practicing writing "Evelyn Irwin" where she normally would have been writing "Evelyn Randle" or "Evie Randle" or "Evelyn Bartlett-Randle".

"No," Doreen's voice had come from over her shoulder, and Evie had nearly jumped out of her skin. "Just no."

"I'm just goofing around, Doreen."

"Uh huh, I suspect that's what Sandy was doing, too."

"Doreen, I'm not going to…"

Doreen had pursed her lips and cocked that eyebrow. Evie had protested, "Can't I just wonder?"

"Wonder what exactly?"

"About anything. Can't I just wonder what it would be like if things were different?"

"Why do things need to be different? What's wrong with Steve? What's wrong with you and Steve?"

Evie had torn the piece of paper out of her notebook, rolled it into a ball, and tossed it into the trash. "Nothing's wrong with me and Steve. I just catch myself wondering sometimes what if this is it? What if there's never anyone else?"

Doreen had smiled then. It was a soft smile, but one that had irritated Evie all the more because it told her that Doreen thought she knew better. "Do you think Sandy's having a gay old time out there, Evie? Do you think you're missing out? My guess is she ain't. You're not missing out on anything."

Evie clears her throat when Ethan doesn't answer her right away. She pokes him. "Ethan, where are you going?"

"Rodeo," he replies. "There's a rodeo tonight. I got a couple of guys I need to see about some horses my uncle's buying. And it is where I met her, right?"

On the other side of Evie, Tim sighs audibly. Ethan grins and says to him, "Come on, son. Aren't you curious to see how real men duke it out?"

"I've been to a rodeo before. A friend of mine, of ours, used to ride bulls," Evie realizes he is referring to Dally. "Didn't make him bulletproof, though, when the time came."

"Bulletproof?" Ethan shakes his head. "Nobody's bulletproof. Some guys just have more time in 'em them others."

"That's beautiful, truly inspiring," Tim grumbles, but Evie thinks it kind of is.

They split up as they near the stands. Ethan spots the men he wants to discuss horses with and suggests that Tim and Evie find a place to sit. "Unless you want to come talk horses."

"We'll sit," Tim says and Evie shrugs at Ethan. She follows Tim in to the stands, and they climb up near the top close to the spot where she had sat with Sandy when she had pointed out Ethan. The sun is going down behind them and the arena lights have come up. Two boys are hosing down the arena to keep the dust down. This evening's events are barrel racing and bull riding, and the stands are nearly full. Tim seems content to people-watch, but Evie's mind is going full throttle.

"Would you want to know?" She asks him just as he is getting comfortable next to her. "If a girl you were with...?"

Tim half-smiles. It seems to amuse him that Evie can't finish the question. "It would depend on who the girl was," he replies.

"Tim!"

"What? There's girls I never want to hear from again, no matter what the news is they're bearing, and then there's girls that's I'd help out." His smile has grown a little wider, and Evie suspects he is teasing. With Tim, though, one can never be quite sure.

"That's just wrong, Tim."

"What's wrong about it? What if it's a mutual thing? Maybe she never wanted to see me again either. You think Sandy and Ethan ever wanted to see each other again?"

"Christ," Evie rolls her eyes. "Okay, so what if you actually liked her, and she came to you…what would you do?"

Tim shrugs. "Whatever she wanted to do."

"So, if she wanted to get married?"

"Sure."

"You'd get married if your girlfriend told you she was pregnant?"

"Yeah, if she was the girlfriend type."

"What does that mean?"

"Means the type of girl I'm usually not with. Therefore the point is moot."

Evie laughs out loud. "The point is moot?"

Tim stretches and makes eye contact with her briefly for the first time. "Hey, I spend a lot of time in court. I listen when all those lawyers are talking about me."

Evie is silent for a few beats, and then she says, "I don't know if Steve would marry me."

"Of course he would."

"Well, I don't know if I'd want to get married."

Tim shrugs. "Who says you have to?"

Evie furrows her brow. "Well, what else is there? I mean, Sandy's plan- whatever the hell that is- doesn't seem to be working out real well for her."

"So just don't have it."

Evie turns to looks at him. Tim is looking straight ahead again, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, transfixed by something across the arena. Evie stares at him long enough that he looks back at her, and says, "what?"

"I thought you were Catholic."

"There's a spectrum of Catholic," Tim says and shrugs. Evie says nothing for a long time. Tim smokes down the rest of his cigarette, flicks the butt under the bleachers and then says, "you can't tell anyone, right? My Ma did it once. I only know because she cried for about three days after. After about the hundredth time I walked in on her crying in the kitchen, I finally rattled it out of her. She just said she was too old, and we were too broke, and my step-dad was too much of a jerk. She said she didn't know why she kept crying because she didn't feel bad about it at all."

"Hormones," Evie nods.

"I guess. Anyway, she did it to take care of all of us. I know some people would crucify her for getting rid of one baby, but the way she saw it, she was taking care of the ones she already had."

"I don't think I could do that," Evie says. "I get what you're saying, but I don't think I could. I wouldn't even know where to look…everything I've heard about that just sounds so shady."

"It is," Tim says. "Or from what I know."

"But you'd be all right if a girl you were with wanted to do it?"

"If that's what she wanted, yeah."

Evie wraps her hands around her stomach. This whole conversation is making her queasy. For one thing, she can't believe she is having it with Tim Shepard, but she also can't believe that she is starting to think Sandy might have been better off with a guy like Tim than a guy like Sodapop Curtis, a guy who believed she should do whatever she felt was best. Evie cocks her head to look at Tim again. Again, he sits silently for a few moments, and then says, "what?"

"I think you're a feminist, Tim."

"Oh, obviously. What the hell?"

"No, I think you are, but tell me the truth: when you say you think a girl in that situation should do what she wants, are you saying it because you think she can or are you saying it because it takes the responsibility for the decision away from you?"

Tim sits up, shaking his head. He fishes another cigarette out of his pocket, pauses, and then takes one out for Evie, too. "What the hell does it matter? At least I'm not the guy who's going to tell her she has to marry some dumb fucker she only knew for one night, or telling her that I'll take care of her when I can't. Christ, here," he hands her the cigarette and gestures to her purse for her lighter. "Put this in your mouth and shut up."

Evie grins and finds her lighter. She lights her cigarette and then hands it to Tim. "It's not a bad thing to be a feminist, Tim."

"Did anyone ever tell you that silence is golden?"

"Yeah- Steve. About thirty times a day for the past year and half."

"Smart guy, that Steve. Sounds like he's a keeper."

On impulse, Evie leans over and rests her head on Tim's shoulder for a moment. She squeezes his arm as she sits back up and says, "sounds like you're a keeper, too, Shepard."

Tim leans back again, smiling, maybe a little embarrassed. "If I can ever find anyone who will keep me." Then, he sits up straight again, ferret-like, and leans forward to get a better look at the other side of the arena. "Well, fuck me now…" he says softly.

Evie, who is stowing her lighter back in her purse, snaps her head up to look at him. She is about to swat him for suggesting such, but she realizes he is cursing something in disbelief. She follows his gaze to the bleachers on the other side of the arena.

"See it?" He asks.

Evie nods. She sees the glow, the blond hair and the creamy china-doll skin. She knows damned well who it belongs to, but she asks anyway, "Tim, is that her?"

"Ask Ethan when he comes back," Tim gestures to the end of the row of bleachers where Sandy Sullivan is sitting. "He sees her, too."

An Evie and Tim exchange glances. Evie starts to sit up, but Tim puts his hand on her arm and tugs her back down. "Just let them talk. Just let them figure it out."

Evie sits back down hard. She watches Ethan walk up to Sandy. Sandy looks up and they are both still for a few beats, and then Ethan sits down next to her. They sit close, so they can speak quietly, but do not touch. Ethan takes his cap off and passes it back and forth in his hands, which Evie has come to recognize as a nervous habit. Sandy sits up straight. Every now and then, she fiddles with her hair, a nervous habit of her own.

Evie's heart is racing in her chest, but it nearly stops when Ethan stands up and holds his hand out to Sandy. Sandy stands, too, and they nod to one another. Next to her, Evie hears Tim whisper, "the fuck?"

"Tim…" Evie says.

"Yeah, I see. She doesn't look very pregnant, does she?"

Evie shakes her head.


	11. Chapter 11

SE Hinton owns it.

**Boys and Girls In America**

Eleven-

They climb down from the bleachers to meet him. Ethan's lost and apologetic eyes are looking straight at Evie, but he speaks to Tim, tapping him on the arm, "can I talk to you for a second?"

Tim shrugs and follows him back behind the bleachers. Evie stays put, but it steams her to be left out.

"I found her. I talked to her," Ethan says.

"Yeah, we could see you. She's carrying that baby pretty damned well."

Ethan shakes his head. "She lost it."

Tim is about to ask where she lost it, but then it dawns on him, and he just says, "oh. Shit."

"Yeah, listen, she's staying with some cousins up in Coffeyville, but she said she'll stop in the diner tomorrow night and talk it out with Evie and Soda." He hesitates and looks around him, past Tim, as if searching in the air for the words. "Man, can you…?"

"Find our way back? Always," Tim says, and then, "you're fucking this up, man."

"Yeah, just like you said I would. Congratulations. You get a gold star."

"Jeez, not a cool belt buckle like you? I'm a little disappointed."

Ethan manages a weak smile and shakes his head at Tim. "I can't explain it, man. I should be over the moon, but all I want to do is belly up and get stupid drunk."

"Maybe because you're a stupid drunk?" Tim ventures.

"God, do they call you when there's someone out on a ledge, too? Jesus, yeah, I probably am, but I just want be out of my head for a while."

"Before you do that, could you maybe do me a favor and explain that to Evie?"

"No, man," Ethan says hopefully. "I'm going to do you a favor and be an asshole instead. I can't do it now. I can't talk to her. God, I'm done with Sandy and now I just want to be done with all of it. So, I'm going be the asshole, and you can be the Calvary. Take your shot, buddy."

He claps Tim on the arm, and then with three quick steps, Ethan disappears into the line of horse trailers. Tim walks back to where Evie is waiting, chewing her lip. Tim can't decide if she looks hurt or furious. He is not excited about finding out.

"What did he say? Where is he?" She demands, as soon as he is within earshot.

"Come on," Tim says. "Let's just go."

"No! I want to know what happened. I want to talk to him. He can't just go."

Tim frowns. "He can and he did. Come on, if I'm going to hitchhike out of Dodge, I need you for bait."

"Oh, it feels so nice to be needed."

"I wouldn't know," Tim grumbles, and pulls her by the arm towards the road. Evie digs her heels in and jerks her arm back. Tim turns to glare at her. "Listen, kid, you can go puppy-dog after him if you want. I'm going back with or without you."

"I'm not a kid," Evie says. She crosses her arms across her chest and tries to return his glare, but Tim drops his shoulders and rolls his eyes.

"From where I'm standing, fuck, you're as bad as my little sister. You know my sister, right? Yeah, you're looking that stupid." He shakes his head and turns away from her, mumbling to himself.

Evie catches something about "all moony-eyed over the first tall, dark stranger…" and she follows him, not caring who looks at her as she shouts, "what the fuck do you care anyway? From where I'm standing, your entire purpose in life is to slither around stirring up shit."

Tim whips back around. He is pretty sure this is the moment when he should take his proverbial shot. If she was a guy, he'd pop her one. Hell, if she was a guy, he would have popped her one long before now. He doesn't have time to ponder why in creation he'd want to kiss a girl when he'd put the lights on a guy who was slinging the same kind of shit at him.

The moment passes, though, and Evie has time to rethink. "I'm sorry, Tim. That wasn't very nice."

Tim shakes his head. "No, it wasn't. Now I want you to think about that long and hard while you're standing up here on the shoulder thumbing us a ride."

Evie giggles and steps forward to walk with him again.

Tim continues, "I also want you to think about why it is exactly that we don't already have a ride. Still feeling all dopey over your boy Ethan? Let's see if you do after we've walked half way back to town. Or maybe after that thunderstorm that's coming in hits us."

"What did he say to you, Tim? He really pissed you off. I thought you guys got along pretty well."

"More what he didn't say." Tim replies, but doesn't elaborate. Evie takes a deep breath and quells the urge to strangle him.

"You're a pain in the ass, Tim."

"Yeah, the chicks dig it. Ask your boyfriend." He jumps to the side to avoid the purse when she swings it at him. Dodging her purse reminds him, "hey, you got a light, little girl?"

"If you stop calling me a little girl, I do."

"Got a light, ma'am?"

Evie swings again and connects this time with his arm. Tim stumbles away laughing and cursing her. "Woman, just get the hell up there and stick your thumb out. And show a little leg, too. That'll catch their attention."

* * *

Ethan sits, beer in hand, on the hood of a friend's truck. He watches Tim and Evie working their way towards the road. It's taking them plenty of time to get there. They're arguing, and Ethan waits for Tim to seize the opportunity and grab her, but he doesn't. Eventually, Tim says something that cracks her up, and they walk off together, disappearing from his view as another pick-up with a trailer pulls off the road and stirs up a cloud of dust.

"Irwin," someone yells to him. "You riding tonight?"

Ethan shakes his head. "Hell, no. I just rope. I don't ride bulls. I seen enough of those head injuries."

"What's the big deal? Ain't like you're using yours anyway," comes the reply, and Ethan throws the half-empty can at him. He jumps down from the truck and casts one more look around the arena. She is gone. They are all gone.

He flips his cap back on his head and walks towards the arena. The lights shimmer in the haze of bugs that fly around them. The announcer is welcoming the spectators and the riders, asking everyone to remember the boys we are missing tonight, the ones gone to Vietnam. She reminds everyone to please keep an eye on their kids and then list the names of the bulls that will be responsible for this evening's ambulance rides.

He spots one of his cousins waving to him. Dusty is going to need a pick-up man, and Ethan will be happy to comply. Relatively low risk of getting gored, but something that will require his concentration none-the-less. Make sure the straps are tight and the ropes are untangled, and don't get stepped on while he's doing it. He'll have to put off drinking any more until later tonight.


	12. Chapter 12

SE Hinton = The Outsiders.

**Boys and Girls In America**

Twelve-

Sandy Sullivan sizes up what she is about to collide with by counting the cars in the diner parking lot. Steve's car is there, Two-Bit's car as well. Sodapop is probably with Steve. Evie is working. She is going to have to deal with all of them at once. She sighs, straightens the sweater draped over her shoulders and walks towards the door. It opens as she reaches for it; Tim Shepard is on his way out, a cigarette already in his mouth.

"Hey" she says as he holds the door open for her.

"How's it going, kid?" He asks.

"I'll let you know in about five minutes."

"You'll have to catch me up," he tells her, which they both know is him blowing her off. "I'm on my way out."

He lets the door close behind her, and Sandy is trapped. She feels like she has walked into an old western movie. The saloon grows silent as she enters. The music stops and the burlesque dancers scurry off stage. The bartender's eyes dart to the shotgun he keeps ready behind the bar. The patrons eye her warily, unsure if she is going to buy them a round or open fire.

The spell is broken when something hits her in the forehead. Sandy looks down to see the projectile rolling between her feet: a wadded up straw wrapper. She looks up again and there is Two-Bit Mathews, who is leaning against the counter, grinning and chewing on a straw.

"Bang," he says.

Sandy claps her hand to her heart and stumbles back against the door as though she has been shot. "You got me, Mathews," she says with a cough.

She sees Sodapop and Steve sitting in a corner booth, both watching her, and both as unsure what to do next as she is. Two-Bit makes the first move for them. He steps across the room, throws his arms around her, and says, "you're back, you little gypsy." As he hugs her, he whispers in her ear, "You're going to have to have bigger balls then either of them. If you go on over, I'll buy you an ice cream."

Sandy returns the hug, nods at him, and walks up to Sodapop and Steve's table. "Can I sit down?"

Sodapop nods. Steve says to him, "Stay or go?"

"Give us a minute or two," Soda tells him, and Steve stands up. He offers Sandy his side of the booth without looking her in the eye. He takes a cigarette out from behind his ear and heads for the backdoor. It is now that Sandy realizes that she has yet to see Evie.

"Wow," she says, sliding in across from Sodapop. "I hear you guys went on quite a trek. I'm sorry about that."

Soda shrugs. "Yeah, we met your grandma. She's pretty worried."

"I called last night. She's not worried anymore. Now she's just really mad." She looks up at him, expecting the same. Soda just looks lost. She can see the questions racing through his mind, too fast for him to pick just one.

"I lost the baby," she tells him. She hates saying that. It brings on the same reaction from everybody- the same one Ethan had: "where did you lose it?", but she hates the word "miscarriage" too. The word sounds too much like "mistake", like she did something to screw it all up. "On the bus on the way to my grandma's. It was over by the time I got there."

"But you didn't tell her? She thought you were still pregnant."

Sandy nods. "Yeah, I was afraid she'd send me back up here, and I didn't want to come back yet. I needed some time to think, so I just pretended. Then she started talking about this family at her church that couldn't have kids, and they'd adopt it, and she had this whole wonderful plan, and I just panicked."

She is surprised how easy it is to spill this all out to Sodapop. There were times, when they were going out, she wasn't sure if he was listening to her at all. He would seem mesmerized by her eyes or her lips or the way her hands moved, but she couldn't be sure he ever heard a word she was saying. Now, though, he is hanging on her every word, although she is sure she hasn't yet gotten to the part he wants to hear.

She doesn't know how to say it. This is why she went running to Ethan, went running to her grandmother, and went running to stay with cousins in Coffeyville. He is the most beautiful thing she has ever laid eyes on, and sometimes he just makes her feel so ugly. Deep down inside, Sandy feels ugly. She had such a beautiful thing in him, and she didn't want it. She wanted everything else, and Soda was her gilded cage.

"Can I ask you something?" He says. She knows what he's going ask, and she still doesn't have an answer, at least not one that he is going to find satisfying. She could explain it to Evie, she is sure, but Evie still has yet to show herself.

Sandy nods again. "Shoot," she says. She expects his words to knock her down like a bullet to the chest.

* * *

Evie is cutting up lettuce in the kitchen when Steve comes in. He returns the fry cook's glare, and pulls Evie by the arm through the back door and into the alley.

"She's here?" Evie asks.

"Yeah," Steve says. He lights the cigarette, but hands it to her first. She inhales and then hands it back to him. "I figured they needed a little alone time."

"How many more cigarettes you got? I'm not sure I want to see her."

Steve widens his eyes in agreement and nods towards a gas station across the street from the alley. "I can always get another pack."

Since his return the previous night, Steve has not been exactly distant. He has not fulfilled Evie's expectation that he would drag her into the back seat of his car the first moment they were alone together. Instead, he has been quiet, but eager to hear her speak. She isn't sure he is taking in what she is saying, but he seems to crave the sound of her voice. Maybe, she thinks, he's just dead tired.

The door to the diner bursts open and Two-Bit joins them, rolling his eyes.

"Fur flying in there?" Steve asks.

"Hardly. Those two are about as explosive as wet paper. I think I caught her saying that needs space or some girly thing like that. Sorry, Evie."

Evie smiles at him. "It's all right. Space is kind of a girl thing around here."

"So, are we going to have to stand out here all night?" Steve asks. He isn't as willing to do it now that Two-Bit has interrupted their conversation.

Two-Bit shrugs. "Do what you want. I defused the situation. Now my work here is done."

"So, you're going to go get loaded?" Evie asks and thinks of Ethan.

"Read my mind, Lady Bartlett," he says, salutes them both, and heads off towards the street.

"What about you?" She turns back to Steve when Two-Bit disappears around the corner of the building. "You look like you need a nap."

"You read my mind, Monkey Bartlett. Goddamn, I'm about ready to drop. Is that all right? I'll be back at closing."

Evie nods. "Yeah, I'm a big girl. I can handle it."

"I know you can," he replies. He wraps his arms around her shoulders and she slips hers inside his jacket and around his waist. He squeezes her tight, and she squeezes back. "Just don't let her give you any ideas, okay?"

Evie smiles into his t-shirt. "I got plenty of ideas of my own."

Steve pulls away and looks over her face. Feeling contented with what he sees, he tells her, "Yeah, I like your ideas, though. Let me get a couple hours of sleep, then we'll go drive around, and you can tell me about 'em."

He kisses her and she kisses back. Then he buries his head against her neck for a moment or two, a gesture he has only begun since returning last night. He inhales slightly, as if he is trying to fill his lungs up with her, as if the smell of her skin will calm him like nicotine. She relaxes her grip, tickles his stomach and he lets her go. "I shall return," he says. "I'm going to walk. Give Soda my keys, okay?"

He hands her the car keys and disappears in the direction Two-Bit has gone. Evie takes a minute to get her thoughts straight, or rather empty her mind of them. She has a million questions for Sandy, but she guesses Sandy has probably already answered them enough times for one night. Evie opens the door and re-enters the diner. She says nothing as she comes up to Soda and Sandy's booth.

Sodapop sees Evie and vacates his side for her. "Where's Randle?"

"Went to take a nap," Evie says, tossing him the keys. "I'd guess he's at your place."

Soda almost runs out the door. Whatever Sandy said to him, it didn't make him happy or instill in him any kind of calm. Evie steps aside to let him flee, and then sits down across from Sandy and her melting ice cream sundae.

"Want some?" Sandy gestures to the sundae. "Two-Bit bought it for me. I guess he thought I deserved a treat."

"Or you needed something to sweeten you up," Evie says and kicks Sandy underneath the table out of an old teasing habit. Sandy seems relieved by it.

Evie takes the spoon and flicks the little pieces of peanuts off of the whipped topping before she takes a bite. "So, Ethan…"

"Wow, big mistake. I mean, obviously, but you met him, right? When do guys grow up, exactly? He's still about as much of a child as Sodapop."

Evie feels something grip her heart and squeeze when Sandy talks about Ethan. She wants to be able to brush off the thought of him the way Sandy appears to be able to do, but something deep down is still wondering if she should have blown past Tim last night to follow him. She rolls her eyes, and tries to imitate Sandy's impatience with all of the opposite sex, "They don't grow up as quick as we do, as I understand it. Maybe we just have to grow up quicker. Then there's Darry Curtis, though."

"Yeah, I guess he had to. Do you remember when we were just in junior high, and all the girls would about die when he'd walk by when we were waiting for the bus? I remember plenty of people saying he knew how to party, but he knocked it off when the time came. I think he's sort of an anomaly, though. Freak of nature."

Evie grins. "If only they were all that freaky." An image of Tim Shepard flits into her mind, then: the quiet guy bearing the weight of his mother's confession, the guy who stuck beside her and kept his head while Ethan crashed and burned. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. I suppose go back to school next term. I'll just be a semester behind y'all."

"You could probably catch up in Howard's class. We haven't done shit in there."

"Surprise. Now that I know that you don't all want to kill me, I guess I could go back." She stops and opens her purse. She takes out a piece of paper and unfolds it; it is one of the flyers Evie had made for Soda and Steve to take. "Did you make these? I found this one in Little Rock."

Evie nods. "You weren't offended by the picture of the dog, were you?"

Sandy shakes her head. "I thought it was funny. I was always pretty proud of that picture. I can't imagine I'll ever have that big New York City gallery opening. At least this way, a whole lot of people got to see it."

Evie frowns. "Why not?"

"Why not what?"

"Why couldn't you ever have a gallery opening?"

Sandy ignores the question. The tension between them had begun to subside, but now it returns. The endless conversations they once had about "life after", Evie suspects, are now a thing of the past. She looks at Sandy, who is looking out the window at the cars passing by the diner. It has started to rain, and the reflections of the headlights and neon signs are blurry and dizzying. Evie wonders if Sandy now sees her as naïve. She is too curious to end the conversation, but the thought puts her on guard.

"So, how was it?" Evie asks.

"How was what?"

"The big bad world? Being out there on your own."

Sandy smiles. She has such a sweet smile if you just sit back and take in her whole face. She has that glow about her- like a neutron bomb. Evie knows enough to just focus on her eyes. Sandy's china blue eyes are not glowing as much as simmering. She nods. "The big bad world… Are you on break? Let me tell you."


End file.
